Yes, this album is extremely underrated, by even the band themselves. Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop were an amazing trilogy. They aren't merely great albums that happened to be released one after the other. They have an amazing trajectory and flow. From mining the depths of the deepest darkest corners of their soul, to exploring the exterior world, then coming back from the depths devilishness, dancing and demons to find yourself, perhaps with more questions than answers... then Beautiful Day and All That You Can't Leave Behind is the answer. They not only achieved this lyrically, and in terms of character, but in the music itself
@@MBeano WAR, JT and AB are fantastic albums, Zooropa was a tour project, some good, some just spontaneous songs (Babyface, First time...), to put it politely. When The Edge decided to only deal with repetitive riffs and guitar distortion and U2 turned primarily to pop, the musical tightrope walk began. While AB was still creatively brilliant, POP was a total crash for me: see sales and especially U2 later played live only Staring mostly on the small acoustic stage; According to later interviews, U2 themselves were totally dissatisfied. POP would only be undercut by SOE 2017. Have fun with all kind of good music✌.
They felt this way about it because they could never really get it to come off live. Swa them on poomartctour in clemson where they struggled thru it (partly due to bono having g trouble with his voice). Then, a week later I saw them in ohio stadium, and if I remember correctly, they didn't even play it. Too bad, I really love the song.
Please do an album review. POP is my #1 most underrated album of all time... Every song is so good. A fantastic album for a summer Saturday afternoon or any other time. 🎉
U2 & REM both released songs around this time that I thought were among their very best but everyone seems to have forgotten. This one by U2 and “Electrolite” by REM. Never understood it.
Written at the time of the troubles in the Balkans, following the break up of the former Yugoslavia. Beneath a poppy exterior, the song expresses frustration at the West's refusal to intervene and prevent atrocities like the one at Srebrenica.
I never liked U2 until this record. My buddy used to laugh at me and say that I'm the only person who likes it. Most people considered this record a huge letdown when it came out. Not sure if that opinion has changed. But regardless, it's the only U2 CD that I own.
I agree with Edge's assessment. The song at its bones is great. But the album version is a bit too bloated. When they sing the acoustic version of this song, it's amazing.
Shawn my brother i haven't heard this since the beginning of time. From memory mines not great but i think U2 had their first number 1 here in Aotearoa new zealand
Because of the booked Pop Mart, U2 were under time pressure when recording, so this terrible pop album was created. The songs were mostly from cheap discount stores, some were tributes to other artists; it had to be quick. The only thing that was right about this album was the album title: POP. SATS was a tribute to Wonderfall by Oasis; the only song that was later played live, partly acoustically, a sign that U2 were also dissatisfied with this album. I think Gone is brilliant (unfortunately it wasn't played live in Europe at the time), a tribute to Grunge and Pearl Jam, who were U2 supporters in the early 90s. I also liked the final song Wake Up Dead Man and the lyrically committed Please (musically rather modest). At the time I thought U2 couldn't undercut POP, but they did with "popy" SOE 2017. SOL is a good album: Raised By Wolves and Cedarwood Road sing gems, also the ballad Song For Someone.✌
This reminds me of 'Pictures of matchstick men' by Status Quo in their psychadelic period (1968). I like the tune but lyrically it doesn't inspire me. More of an early U2 fan here. Cheers.
